From the middle of the nineteenth century, Norway became a popular destination for aristocratic British fishermen. They became known there as “salmon lords”. John Francis Campbell (1821-1885) was one of them but he did more than live a life of leisure. He was a noted linguist and folklorist, collecting Gaelic folktales, songs, anecdotes and more.
Tag: travel
Curators’ Favourites: Tours of Scotland
The choice: Tours of Scotland Chosen by: Kirsty McHugh, Curator, John Murray Archive & Publishers’ Collections Read online at the Curious Travellers website Welcome to the third in our blog series where we introduce you to some favourites from our collections for you to enjoy reading, all freely available online. In this blog, rather than focus on a book from our digital gallery, we invite you to explore some of […]
Suitcase Spouses: couples that travelled together
The archive of the John Murray publishing house holds many records of people that travelled throughout the world. Letters from abroad, proofs for works about their travels and illustrations of things they had seen can be found in this vast archive. Most areas of the world were covered under the imprint of John Murray. Some […]
One year in the photo-wilds of the National Library of Scotland
The Exploration of a Mountain of Photographic Material by an Icon Intern American pioneering mountaineer and explorer Fanny Bullock Workman’s book Two Summers in the Ice-wilds of Eastern Karakoram: The Exploration of Nineteen Hundred Square Miles of Mountain and Glacier was the inspiration for the title of this piece as I feel it accurately summarises […]
Night trains : the rise and fall of the Sleeper
Night trains have long been a source of fascination. Authors from Agatha Christie to Graham Greene have used sleeper trains to tell tales of romance, intrigue and decadence against a rolling background of dramatic landscapes. The reality could be just as thrilling as the fiction: early British travellers on the Orient Express were advised to […]
Dear World, How Are You?
How do you begin to write a letter to every country in the world? What kind of replies would you get? And how do you undertake such a challenge when you are only five years old?
The earliest book about St Kilda
Martin Martin (d. 1718), the Scottish traveller and celebrated author of ‘Description of the Western Islands of Scotland’ (1703), was also the first to publish an account of the remote Scottish island group of St. Kilda (RB.s.2901). The book was based on his experiences during a trip to the islands made in 1697, and it […]
Early Colour Printing
A small book with coloured plates published in 1858 was recently added to the Library’s collections. It was published by the firm of Thomas Nelson, which became one of the most successful publishing houses in the world during the 19th century. Its origins lay in bookselling in Edinburgh, and from there the firm expanded into publishing and printing. […]
A Lady’s Cruise
I’ve bidden my time, putting up what I hope have been interesting and surprising items from the Bartholomew Archive Printing Record. But, now comes the time for one of my all time favourite maps.